California’s Team Alpha Male has long been considered one of MMA’s top training destinations – especially for the sport’s lighter-weight fighters.

But 2012 hasn’t exactly been kind to the squad with Joseph Benavidez, Chad Mendes and team leader Urijah Faber all coming up short in title fights.

On Friday, Team Alpha Male’s Danny Castillo (14-4 MMA, 4-1 UFC) faces Michael Johnson (11-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC), and he insists he’s not weighed down by any of those results. After all, his team’s mantra is all about positivity.

“Not at all,” Castillo told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “It’s MMA. Anything can happen, and that’s pretty much why I’m going to slap some money down on ‘The American Psycho’ and go with Stephan Bonnar to win next weekend (over Anderson Silva). Anything can happen. That’s just the nature of the sport, and if you harp and focus on the negatives, then it’s just going to get you down.

“Negativity is just like a cancer. Everybody in the camp tries to stay away from it and stay humble and as happy as possible.”

And so Castillo now meets Johnson on the preliminary card of Friday’s UFC on FX 5 event, which takes place at Minnesota’s Target Center. The Castillo-Johnson takes place on the evening’s FUEL TV-broadcast portion of the event, which follows a pair of bouts on Facebook and precedes the evening’s FX-broadcast main card.

Johnson looks to build on the strength of back-to-back impressive wins over Tony Ferguson and Shane Roller. “The Ultimate Fighter 12″ finalist has seemingly gained confidence in those matchups, and he’s flashed impressive striking prowess and footwork in the decision victories.

A self-professed student of the game, Castillo said he’s impressed by what he sees but is more than ready to combat his opponent’s strengths.

“I’ve had some teammates played the role of [Johnson] and use good footwork<” Castillo said. “But I’ve got a great gameplan coming in, and without saying too much, I plan to close the gap, cut the cage off and if he’s running and I’m having difficulties closing the distance, I’m just going to wave him in. I’m not going to chase him.

“I’ve seen too many people fall victim to that gameplan. I think Joseph kind of fell into that, and later in the rounds he was kind of fighting desperately when he didn’t necessarily have to. I think the same thing happened in there with Nick (Diaz) and (Carlos) Condit.”

If you add in his bouts under the now-shuttered WEC banner, Castillo is actually 6-1 in his past seven fights. He’s downed recognizable commodities such as Shamar Bailey, John Cholish, Anthony Njokuani, Dustin Poirier and Joe Stevenson along the way, and his lone loss in the stretch came to an always-tough Jacob Volkmann. A victory against Johnson could potentially earn Castillo consideration for a more high-profile matchup, but “Last Call” insists he’s not too worried about rankings or call-outs.

Just keep doing what you’re doing, Castillo believes, and good things will come.

“I try not to get wrapped up into win streaks or where I’m at in the division or rankings or anything like that because I think it takes away from my focus on the fight, not to mention I try to stay as humble as possible,” Castillo said. “There was a point in time in my career where I won three straight in the WEC, and I lost sight of that. I lost focus. I lost two fights, and that was probably the worst year of my life. So I try not to think about that.

“I don’t know what’s going t happen after I win, and I don’t really care to think about the future. Right now, the most important thing is coming out with a ‘W’ and getting two checks by beating Michael Johnson, then getting back home and taking some rest and getting right back on it.”

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